[Dialogue] Hurricane Ike log

[opossum2 at att.net]

Colleagues,

Well, we were incredibly lucky this past week. A brief log of events:

Thursday morning, September 11:  My office announces they will close at noon.  I leave, go to the grocery store and pick up some more drinks, snacks, cat food and cat litter and take it home.  Then meet my wife and a friend for lunch, as most places around town start to shut down.

Thursday afternoon:  I turn the patio furniture upside down, move the potted plants to shelter and take down the hanging baskets.  We have been collecting empty 64 oz. plastic bottles and I start running tap water through our Britta filter and filling them.  That evening I pick up my wife and we go back to the store - lines are long, but we get some fresh meat and a few other things and get out okay.

Thursday night is very quiet.

Friday is exceptionally quiet.  We  continue to stockpile water, fill the bath and some buckets in case we lose water pressure.  Mostly just waiting.  At 5 p.m. as the winds start to pick up, the woman next door starts to worry about some tree limbs  that are close to her power lines.  A neighbor from accros the street and I are up in the tree on an 11-foot ladder sawing limbs and generally flirting with disaster.  Then some 8 or 9 of us from the neighborhood lounge on her lawn with drinks and wait for the wind.  Later, since the stores were out of fresh bread, Oonagh bakes some bread.  About 10 p.m. we step outside and the wind is really picking up, along with small rain squalls.  At 10:45 the power goes off.

2 a.m. Friday:  I can't sleep so one of the cats and I patrol around the house in the dark.  The wind is eerie, coming in about 30 sec . cycles, from almost still to what I judge as 75-80 mph.  No loud noises, but lots of bumps and clunks.  Looking out our dining room window I realize that I can see the shutters on our neighbor's house.  A large swath of their tall wooden privacy fence has blown down.  Fortunately, it fell towards their house.  If it hand fallen the other way it would have broken our dining room windows.

4 a.m.:  with another "clunk" the large American El m in our back yard keels over and comes to rest partly across the back corner of our house and partly on our other neighbor's fence.  Minor leaks in the back bedroom and bathroom, but the roof doesn't appear to be heavily damaged.

At 5 am, I finally go to sleep.  By about 7, the eye is north of us, but the winds are still blowing strongly from the other direction.  By 8 the storm is abating somewhat, and the power comes back on!

Saturday afternoon: the winds are dying down significantly.  We take pictures of the damage, call the insurance company to file a claim, go for a walk around the neighborhood with some neighbors.  Lots of damage to trees and fences, but amazingly little to buildings, and no real flooding.

Sunday:  everyone is out trimming, raking and cleaning up.  The song of the chainsaw reverberates through the area. On Sunday evening a friend from near by who still has no power comes over for a hot meal and to recharge her laptop.

Monday - Tuesday: the yard is cleaned up and everything dealt with except the tree.  The city is reviving, but the whole coastal zone has either disappeared or been totally devastated.  

Wednesday:  My office is open so I go to work, although not much is happening.  Gas Stations are beginning to get power and gasoline and are reopening.  I manage to fill my nearly-empty tank

Thursday:  Things continue to imrove.  A realtor on our street connects us with a restoration contractor who can not only remove the tree but repair the roof, and since the house is nearly 100 years old and has a slate and tile roof, he sounds perfect.  I bring in a bale of asphalt shingles I had stored in the garage and give them to a co-worker who regards them as golden, since all the building supply stores are out of stock.

We have several employees who have recently re-located here from Mexico and Venezuela and two of them bring in empanadas for the whole department.

I'm sending this from work since our cable and internet are still out at the house, but that is all we lack being back to normal (and dealing with the tree).

Like the Wegners we are mourning the losses of those along the coast, even while we can't believe our own good fortune.

Regards to all,

Steve and Oonagh Rhea
Houston, Tx.
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